Baseball Opens Conference Play at Elon
3/8/2012 3:19:00 PM | Baseball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Defending Southern Conference Baseball Tournament Champions, Georgia Southern opens the 2012 conference slate with the defending SoCon Regular Season Champions Elon. The Eagles begin their conference schedule with the Phoenix for the first time in program history.
Chris Beck (Jefferson, Ga.) takes the mound in Friday's afternoon contest and squares off with Kyle Webb at 4 p.m. Jarret Leverett (Eatonton, Ga.) and Justin Hess (Panama City, Fla.) will both crack the weekend rotation for the first time this year and will face Dylan Clark and Spencer Medick at 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday, respectively. Leverett will be making his first start of the season and has a 1-0 record and a 2.08 ERA in four appearances out of the bullpen this year.
Georgia Southern (7-6) is coming off a 10-1 victory over Charleston Southern on Tuesday and is looking for their fifth-straight conference opening series victory. The Eagles picked up their second win in as many tries with 10 unanswered runs against the Buccaneers. GSU bounced back from trailing after the fourth inning for just the second time this season with seven runs in the middle innings.
Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) leads the offense with a .473 batting average, seven doubles and 19 RBIs. The senior captain continues to climb the career batting average list and currently sits in sixth place with a .366 career average. Phillips has hit in every game this season and holds a 14-game hitting streak.
Behind Michael Burruss' (Marietta, Ga.) 10 walks, Georgia Southern has posted a SoCon-best .404 on-base percentage. The Eagles are also atop the league in hits with 139, second in doubles with 28 and first in total bases. Burruss walked just 25 times in his career prior to this season but is already on pace for 43 base on balls this year.
Elon (7-5) opened conference play last week on the road with College of Charleston and took two games in the three-game series. The Phoenix dropped a 3-0 decision to #6 North Carolina on Wednesday and were held to three hits in the loss. Jake Luce leads the offense, who is hitting just .207 in the early going, with a .293 batting average. The pitching staff has carried the load with a 2.52 ERA and has received great starting pitching. Clark is 3-1 on the year with a 1.66 ERA over 21.2 innings this season.
All games can be heard on Boomer 103.7 FM and inside the stadium on 88.1 FM. Audio for all games is also available on the web and subscription video is available for all home games at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision.
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